Dark was the Night
by CalzonaStrongForever
Summary: A different look at the ambulance crash at 8x09 - what if Meredith wasn't lucky enough to get out of the crash with minor injuries?
1. The accident

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 1:

Alex's POV:

I opened my eyes and felt my head pounding in pain. The ambulance crash. The baby. Mer.  
slowly I stood up and saw Meredith's lying unconscious next to me; for one second I thought she was dead but then I saw her eyes slowly open.  
"Mer are you ok?" she nodded; she had a small cut on her forehead.  
"let me look at your cut"  
"no, it's nothing. I'm fine. How's the baby?"  
I looked inside the incubator and saw the baby's chest slowly rising up and going down as she breathed.  
"We need to get out of here before another car will come" I said  
"but what about the baby?"  
"We'll take her with us"  
Mer carefully took the baby out and opened the ambulance's door. We saw 4 bodies- 2 adults and 2 kids lying on the ground. I checked for pulse but all of them were dead.

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General POV:

Suddenly Meredith and Alex heard a soft sob, they quickly and saw a girl that looked like she was around 16 years old walking towards them.  
"oh god!" she said and started to cry when she saw her family's dead bodies.  
"I'm Dr. Karev and this is Dr. Grey let us help you. Are you hurt?"  
"no but why you're not helping my family? Do something!"  
"I'm so sorry but they are all dead. You need to move to the side of the road so you won't get hurt. Mer you should also move…" he turned around and saw that Meredith looked pale.  
"Mer? Are you ok?"  
"yeah I'm fine just feeling a little dizzy"  
"let me take the baby"  
Meredith wanted to resist but she felt too sick to start an argue. She sat down and leaned against the ambulance.  
Alex looked worried but before he could go and check on Mer a car came and hit the ambulance and Meredith.


	2. bad news

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 2:

Alex didn't have time to think, he immediately went into full-doctor mode. He gave the baby to the terrified teenager and ran towards Meredith.

When he got closer to the car and saw Meredith he felt nauseous- she had a huge gash on her forehead that was continually bleeding, her legs were crushed and there were small pieces of shattered glass all over her body.

He turned around and saw the driver "call 911 and tell them that we have a critical patient, 3 minor injuries, a critically ill baby and 4 DOAs. Tell them to take us to Seattle Grace-Mercy West."  
"I… I'm so sorry…. I didn't see you and…"  
"it doesn't matter what happened- you need to call 911 NOW before my friend will die!"

Suddenly they heard a quiet groan, Alex went next to Meredith.  
"Al…Alex?" she whispered  
"Mer you were in an accident so please try not to move."  
"it hurts…"  
"I know it hurts but you got to hang on ok?"  
Meredith tried her best to fight but she was slowly pulled into the darkness.

In the hospital:

"Derek, you need to sit down" Dr. Webber tried to calm Derek.

"I can't I need to go and find Meredith"

"we got a call from someone that was there but you need to calm down because stress won't help"

Derek took a deep breath and sat down "okay"

"we got a call from a panicked person that said that there are 4 fatalities, 3 minor injuries , the baby and… a critically injured woman"

Derek wiped a tear the rolled down his face "Meredith…"

"you can't know if it's her- there were many other people in the accident…"

"but it might be her…"

Before Richard had the chance to calm him Dr. Hunt rushed into the room  
"they're 2 minutes out"

Derek ran as fast as he could to meet the ambulances.  
the first ambulance had the baby, Arizona and an intern took him to the NICU.

The second ambulance came and when the doors opened he saw a paramedic coming out saying "female, early 40s, crushed legs, big laceration on the forehead and several pieces of glass all over her body."

Derek's anxiety level rose but he tried to tell himself it's not Meredith.  
he took a few steps forward and saw something he will never forget- Meredith was lying unconscious on the stretcher covered with wounds and blood.


	3. Fight for your life

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 3:

"NO! it… it can't be" Derek said

"Let's take her to trauma 2, get her 2 units of A+ and page Dr. Baily, Sloan and Torres" Owen said. "oh and make sure that Dr. Shepherd, Yang and Grey don't go into the room. Let's move people!"

**In the trauma room:**  
"let's get her x-ray and a CT to make sure there's no internal damage; and book and OR. Oh and page Dr. Nelson, she needs a neuro consult.

"stats dropping" a nurse said.

"Starting compressions" Bailey 'announced'

Suddenly there was the long, continues beep that every doctor hated hearing.

"damn it, she's crashing" Owen said in frustration.

"charge to 250; clear!" Callie said; "no change". "charging to 300; clear! She's back"

Everyone in the room could breathe again.

"let's take her upstairs, hurry up people!"

Derek waited for what seemed like forever until finally Dr. Bailey came out.  
"her injuries are pretty bad… she coded in the trauma room and her CT scan shows internal bleeding in the spleen. We're taking her now to surgery to repair her spleen and crushed legs. Mark sewed her laceration and will suture her cuts when we take out the glass. We'll do our best but you need to prepare yourself…" Bailey was trying her best to stay focused and emotionally detached but she could feel her own eyes filling with tears when she saw Derek's face.

A few minutes after Bailey left Alex came. He looked exhausted and concerned. "how is she?"  
"it's not good. I'm scared I might loose her" Derek said and broke into tears.  
"she'll make it through, she'll fight, she has to…"

Suddenly they saw Lexie walking towards them, her eyes were red from crying.  
"I… I just heard. What… what are her injuries?" she whispered the last word.  
"Her legs are crushed, she had a big laceration on her head, internal bleeding and shattered glass all over her body. She coded in the trauma room" Derek said in a robotic voice trying not to think how bad the situation is.  
"oh god" Lexie said and let out a heart breaking sob.

Alex just sat there with his hands covering his face.

**6 hours later **

Owen came to the waiting room and sat next to Lexie, Derek, Alex and Christina that just heart what happened- she looked like she was in shock.

"Callie managed to repair her legs, and mark sutured all the cuts she had after removing the glass; but the damage in the spleen was too extensive so we had to take it out."

"she's alive" Derek more stated than asked with hope in his voice.

"she's facing a long recovery and many months over physical therapy but yes, she's alive. She's in recovery now and soon we'll transfer her to the ICU and you'll be able to visit her.

** A few hours later**

Derek had been sitting next to her bed holding her hand for hours. Every 20 minutes a nurse came and checked her stats.

"De… Derek?" Derek heard the quiet whisper.  
"I'm here, you had an accident but you're going to be ok."  
suddenly Meredith looked concerned "what about Alex, and the baby and oh god, all these people that dies"  
"shhhh it's ok. Alex and the baby are fine. You should focus on yourself."  
"ok…"  
"are you in pain?"  
"no"  
Derek knew it was a lie but he didn't have the emotional energy to start arguing with her.  
"do you need anything?"  
"just you"  
"I'll stay here but you should rest. You just had a major surgery. Ok mer?" no answer "Mer?"  
suddenly she started to seize and the next thing notices was seeing his wife coding again.

cliffhanger... soon school will start again so I won't be able to update a lot...

please review- it means so much to me, it might sound cheesy but it really makes my day :)


	4. awakening

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 4:

"charge to 250; clear!" Owen was trying to save his wife's "person"  
"please Mer you have to fight"  
"no change, push one of epi"  
"you have to fight for Zola" Derek was now freely sobbing  
"charge to 300; clear!" *beep* *beep* *beep* "she's back" everyone let out a breath they didn't know they were holding.

**About half an hour later**

Derek was sitting next to Meredith and held her hand when he heard the door opens; he turned around and saw Janet- Zola's social worker holding the most important thing in his life. The light in the darkest days, the joy in the most depressing times; the girl that makes everything seem ok even when it's all bad.

"I'm sorry to hear about Meredith. I came to your home but you weren't there so I came here to tell you the news"  
"what news?" Derek sounded exhausted  
"after the judge had reviewed your case he decided to give Zola back to you. She's yours forever"  
Derek smiled for the first time in many hours and hurried to get his little baby.  
"I'll leave you alone. You just need to sign some papers but don't worry about it. You just need to focus now on Zola and Meredith."

A few minutes after Janet left Derek heard a soft groan.  
"Mer? Can you open your eyes?"  
Slowly Meredith opened her eyes. All she could feel was pain all over her body. She tried to focus on Derek when her eye wandered to the little girl sitting on his lap. A small smile came across her face when she realized she got her baby back. She wanted to talk but then she noticed there's a tube in her throat, she started to panic.  
"please try to relax. You still can't breathe on your own. I'll give you a piece of paper and a pen to write."  
Derek looked at what Meredith wrote  
"_when did we get Zola? Will she stay with us forever this time?"  
_ Derek quietly laughed a little "yes. Janet came a few minutes ago and said the judge decided to give us ZoZo back"  
Meredith looked relieved but she had many more questions about her medical condition.  
"what are my injuries? How long was I out?"  
"you had a gash on your forehead that Mark stitched so you probably won't have a scar. You had internal bleeding in your spleen so Dr. Bailey had to take it out; you also had many cuts from all the pieces of glass. Both of your legs were crushed but Callie repaired most of the damage so after a lot of PT you'll be back standing in the OR." Derek said trying to stay positive.  
A single tear ran down Meredith's eye, she wiped it and then pointed her finger at the vent and looked at Derek. He understood what she meant.  
"your body is too weak now to breathe on your own, it needs to focus on recovery. The fact that you didn't fight it when you woke up worries me." Derek just realized how badly injured Meredith was- even breathing was impossible for her body.

"can I hold Zola?"  
"I don't think you're strong enough right now to do that but you can stroke her hair."  
Meredith nodded and Derek held Zola close to Meredith so she can almost hold her without putting Zola's weight on her incisions.

After Derek took Zola Meredith's eyes closed and she fell asleep.

This chapter is a little shorter but during the weekend I'll have more time to write.

please review- it means so much to me, it might sound cheesy but it really makes my day :)


	5. Something is wrong

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 5:

The next time Mer woke up she knew something was wrong. The pain in her legs felt a hundred times worse- if it was barely bearable than, no it was far beyond bearable. She began to scream and her blood pressure rose. "Shh Mer, I know it hurts a lot but you need to calm down." Meredith heard Derek's voice but couldn't make sense of what he says.  
"Systolic blood pressure is 170 and going up. You HAVE to calm her down or I'll have to sedate her."  
Derek felt desperate- for the first time in his life he didn't know what to do or what to say; he wasn't the knight in shining whatever anymore. He was just a panicked husband who wants to take away his wife's pain.

Feeling buried by desperation he got angry "why don't you give her some damn morphine?!"  
"we already gave her the limit amount, anymore could kill her. please do not scream you're just putting the patient in more distress."  
Derek took a deep breath, he was thankful that Mark convinced him to take Zola to the daycare earlier. "Meredith, please try to calm down. Your blood pressure is too high"  
"it's not working we're going to have to sedate her and find out what is wrong with her"  
what is wrong with her?! Derek thought to himself, a freaking car crushed her body that what happened.

The nurse took a syringe and pushed it to Mer's IV. A few seconds later her eye lids closed and her stats went back to normal.  
"we're going to take her to CT and run some tests"

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**A few hours later**

"Dr. Shepherd, you should sit down." An unfamiliar doctor said to Derek.  
"The tests had shown that Mrs. Shepherd"  
"Meredith, Meredith Grey" Derek corrected him  
"Meredith" The doctor said in an apologetic voice "has a severe infection in her leg"  
"wha…what do you mean severe?"  
"it got to her nerves"  
"so you are telling me you are going to need to amputate both her legs?!"  
"we just started her on a course of antibiotics so she is most likely to keep her left leg, but the right one we'll have to amputate"

Derek felt anger- he didn't understand why this keeps happening to them, especially why this keeps happening to his wife. Whenever they try to help and do something heroic for a stranger- something very bad happens to them. When she drowned, or had her hand on the bomb and even when he got shot they ended up being fine; but now, he knew this accident was going to change their lives forever.

"Dr Shepherd, you are going to need to sign consent form for the surgery"  
"ok, I'll do anything that will keep her alive. D… do you know when the procedure will start?"  
"as soon as possible, probably within the next hour"  
"ok" Derek tried to put a brave face on but he couldn't believe the fact that in a few hours his wife will lose her leg. Even if she'll get a prosthetic and eventually do everything she did before the accident she will be facing many months of PT and an unimaginable amount of pain.  
"here are the forms"  
"thank you Dr…?"  
"Smith, Dr. Smith"  
Derek was about to sign, but in the second the pen touched the paper he felt resistance. Not physical one, but emotional one. This isn't right he told himself, it's not fair and not right that this one signature will affect lives of 3 people forever.  
"Are you ok?" Dr. Smith asked.  
"yeah, it just feels so unreal… only a few days ago we were an almost-happy couple. Everything was normal and now… she is critically injured and about to lose her leg."  
"life is not fair, bad things happened to the good ones all the time. But we have to keep fighting and in the end happiness will come. Just remember that no matter how bad the infection seems or how painful the PT session was the final goal of Dr. Grey being able to function as a mother and a surgeon again is worth everything."  
"Thank you so much."

He signed the consent papers.

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I know this is a little dramatic and similar to Ari's story in grey's, but I plan to take this to different and more happy story. Even though now almost everything is pretty messed, like I said in the story- it'll get better.

please review :)


	6. You can do it

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 6:

Mer's POV:  
I opened my eyes, I felt exhausted. I looked to my side and saw Derek- he looked at me with a lot of concern in his eyes. I thought I even saw some regret. He looked like he aged by a lot in the past few days. "Mer, I'm so sorry," he said.  
"Why? What did you do?" I asked and half-smiled.  
"Do you remember yesterday that your leg hurt?" he asked.  
"Yeah… It's not something I'd forget…"  
"well, it wasn't an after-affect of the surgery"  
"what do you mean?"  
"I'm so deeply sorry Mer, I should've thought about that option" Derek said more to himself rather than to Meredith.  
"Thought about what?! Derek what happened? You're scaring me"  
"shhh calm down, the reason your leg hurt so badly was because you had an infection"  
"so, they gave me sedative and antibiotics right? Because I just realized that I can't feel my leg. But they wouldn't take it off, right?"  
"I'm so sorry…" he whispered .  
"STOP SAYING THAT!" I got really angry.  
"The doctor had to amputate your right leg"  
"get out" I was about to break down and I didn't want him to see me crying like a baby.  
"Mer please… you need me to get through this"  
"GET OUT!" I didn't mean to get so upset, it's just that I couldn't think about what he's going through at this moment.  
His eyes filled up with tears and he slowly walked out of the room.  
That's when I let it all out. I was weeping because of my leg, because of the accident, because I was obviously not fine, because my mom was the worse mom and my dad abandoned me when I was 5, because I was tired of fighting and staying strong, because keeping it together was getting too hard.  
After crying for what felt like hours I just lied down in bed and stared at the ceiling. She wanted to look at her stump but decided it's a bad idea.

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General POV:

Meredith suddenly heard footsteps. She looked up and saw Derek.  
"I'm so-" he started to say.  
"no, I'm sorry. This wasn't your fault, you did exactly what you should've done. I'm sorry for yelling at you."  
"I love you" he said and got closer to her.  
"I love you too, so much."  
"you know, the doctor said that with the right prosthetic and some PT you'll be able to function almost like you always did"  
"will I be able to take care of Zola and operate?"  
"yes" he said. Meredith had a small smile on her face and her eyes finally had hope in them. "it won't be easy, but I'm always here for you. Whenever you need me"  
"You know what I need now?"  
"what?"  
"I need my very sexy husband to kiss me, and to hold my baby again" Meredith said with a playful voice. She knew life is going to be harder now, but she had Derek, Zola, Cristina, Lexie, Alex and many more people who will always be there for her when she can't do things.  
Whatever life will though at me I'll fight, because things eventually will get better.  
"You can do it Meredith, just stay strong" Derek said right before he exited the room.  
"I will"

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Next chapter I plan to have some Twisted sisters or Meredith-Lexie conversations.

please review :)


	7. You're my person

Disclaimer- I do not own the show/ the characters *sobs* all rights saved for Shonda & Co.  
A/N- this is a series of one-shots about the ambulance crash in the end of "Dark was the Night" (8X09).  
enjoy :)

Chapter 7:

chapter 7:

"Mere!" Cristina entered the room and her eyes were full of tears  
"what happened?" Mer asked her worriedly  
"I haven't got the chance to be with you. When I heard I was so worried…" she fought the tears as much as she could but she decided to give in to her emotions and started sobbing.  
Mer moved a little in her bed and tapped on it to signal Cristina to lie next to her. She hugged her and started to talk: "I know you were worried, if you would've been in an accident I would die of worry! But I am ok, I'll be lying if I said I'm fine or good but I will be ok. I've got you, Derek, Zola-"  
"wait, did you just say you've got Zola?!"  
"yeah! You didn't hear?" Mer said and a huge smile spread on her face. "on the day of the accident Janet came and gave us Zola"  
"I didn't really have the chance to talk to Derek, but WOW this is great!"  
suddenly Mer saw that Cristina's gaze moved to the lower part of her body- to where the blanket covered the gap of where her leg used to be.  
"You really didn't hear anything" Mer said trying to joke a little.  
The tears came back to Cristina's eyes. She hated being such a crying baby especially now that Mer needed her to be strong but this was overwhelming.  
"Mer, y…your leg. W..what happened?" Cristina knew in her head what happened but she didn't want to believe.  
"infection…" Mer tried to put a smile on her face but for the second time since she woke up reality hit her, hard. She really didn't want to join Cristina's cry. This was so out of their character but they didn't really care anymore.  
They both let themselves break down and they bawled while hugging each other.  
When Derek walked in he saw his wife and her best friend hugging and crying their heart out. At the first second her wanted to go to Mer and ask her what happened, he wanted to yell at Cristina for crying but then he realized that Mer needed that cry and that moment with Cristina so he quietly left the room to give them some privacy.  
After what seemed like forever they both calmed down and looked at each other.  
Suddenly Mer had a small smile on her face that soon became a giggle. At first Cristina looked at her like she lost her mind but soon she joined the laugh. It was like in George's funeral when they were so overwhelmed with everything that happened that laughing was the only way to deal with it without losing your mind. "I… I lost my leg in an ambulance accident, and Derek got shot" Meredith said between laughs.  
"so did Owen, and Burke!"  
"and then I had a miscarriage and couldn't get pregnant"  
"and I had an ectopic pregnancy and then I got pregnant again and I don't even want kids!" her laughs grew stronger.  
"I almost died on 4 separate occasions that all had to do with Seattle Grace Mercy Death"  
Cristina started to cry from laugher as she repeated Meredith's last words "Seattle-Grace-Mercy-Death. Get it? Because we all almost died! This is too funny!"

after laughing for 10 minutes without being able to stop they finally calmed down.

"seriously Cristina, don't be sad or worried. Before you'll even notice it I'll be back to work to steal your surgeries"  
"ha you can keep dreaming about getting the cool surgeries while I actually perform them"  
"wanna bet I can get better surgeries then you?"  
"competition's on. From the day you come back we'll have a 3 day 'cut-as-much-as-you-can" surgery marathons. The one who has the most and best surgeries wins."  
"what's the prize?"  
"I don't know, think about it when you lie here for hours and feeling bored"  
"ahh what would I do without you?"  
"you'd starve and die alone- old and stinky"  
Meredith smiled as Cristina left her room.

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I know I said Lexie would be featured but as I wrote the chapter I realized that Lexie has to wait a little more... Next chapter I'll really try to put some sister quality time for Meredith and Lexie.

Please take a moment to review- it means a lot to me.


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